The invention is in the field of constructing tile walls or horizontal counters and the like wherein the tile is installed over an existing structural surface.
Using the example of a vertical existing wall surface such as behind a bath tub or sink, the existing method of installing the tile is more or less as follows. First, tar paper or other impermeable membrane is put against the wall if the existing wall is not of a certain water resistant type. Then, a stiff awkward metal netting material called diamond mesh is placed over the tar paper and tacked through to the existing structural surface.
Then a pair of vertical swaths of mortar are laid from top to bottom of the wall to be tiled and a "float strip" is imbedded in each of these swaths.
The float strips are plumbed to insure that they are vertical within fairly close tolerances and they are adjusted in the mortar to insure this. The mortar in these swaths is of a thickness to permit plumbing to overcome any irregularities in the verticalness of the existing structure.
According to existing practice, at this stage mortar is "floated" between and around the float strips and screeded off with a straight-edge against the float strips so that the entire wall will be as vertical as the float strips which have been carefully plumbed. After the entire structure has been covered with mortar to form a "settiing bed" for the subsequent installation of the tile, the float strips, which are merely wooden laths, are pulled out of the mortar and the rectangular channels that they left in the mortar are then filled with mortar and troweled flat, and the float strips are washed off and saved for the next floating. Now that this setting bed or layer of mortar is complete, the tile is applied with special cements to the vertical mortar surface and the wall is finished.
The present invention is directed toward two aspects of this process which require improvement, the first being the use of metal diamond mesh referred in the trade as metal lath, and the other being the unnecessary effort involved in removing and cleaning the float strips and filling the channels they have left.